And To Think, I Once Dated You

The expanded gang were sitting comfortably around, talking about various demons they killed and strangeness they’d seen, their best stories, and generally trying to get to know the newcomers as best they could. The door leading to the lobby was opened so they could hear anyone who came in, especially the Sunnydale gang who were due soon, but they were currently happy in the rarely used family room.  

Fred was fascinated with Dawn’s mystical beginnings, and made Wes – who talked with Giles more than anyone realized – and Buffy repeat what they knew until they both told her to simply wait for Willow to arrive or to contact Giles in England. Lorne kept mumbling about Higher Powers at the oddest times, but when questioned, couldn’t remember why he’d said anything. Wesley listened to Buffy’s stories with a different perspective than he’d had when she’d been her watcher, finally beginning to understand the complicated young woman before him.  

Buffy, for her part, relaxed for the first time in months, possibly a year. Dawn curled at her side, head resting on the slayer’s lap as the slayer rested against Angel’s side. They still had tons to talk over, work through, and work out, but it was nice to be able just to be together. Buffy sighed and moved closer, smiling when Angel tightened his arm around her shoulders.  

Dawn smiled at the display and went back to listening to the stories. Buffy stroked her hair, making Dawn feel young and loved again. Angel was there, with her sister where, though Dawn didn’t realize she felt this way until yesterday’s blinding spellness, he truly belonged. Yeah, she thought as the group around her laughed, this was how it was supposed to be. And if Buffy needed time away, Dawn vowed to give her only a little grief about it; after all, it wasn’t only a younger sister’s job, now the younger sister understood what her older one had been through, and what Buffy needed.  

“Wait, so let me get this straight,” Gunn said as he sputtered with laughter, ignoring Cordelia’s glare. “Cordy here yelled at the vampire and threatened him with a metal spatula? And he ran away?”  

Cordelia smirked as Buffy nodded, “Yeah, Homecoming was way more exciting than the publicity indicated. It was the remaining Gorch brother, you remember him, Angel?” At the vampire’s nod, Buffy returned to her story. It’d been so long since she could do this, share experiences with others like her, others either who hadn’t been there for some of the more harrowing events, or who appreciated her stories in ways Riley never could. He always felt too intimidated by her strength and past exploits.

“Haven’t heard from him since,” Buffy said, “So I guess I have you to thank for that, Cordy.”  

It was one of the first things Buffy had said, directly, to her former high school friend and Cordelia accepted it with a graceful nod.  

“So you don’t kill all the demons and vampires you meet?” Fred asked, enthralled with so many things about this group. She was still getting used to the dynamics there, then with the added ones of Buffy and Dawn, plus the old and new ones with Doyle, Fred just listened and watched.  

“I mean I know you are friends with Lorne, and you wouldn’t  kill Angel,” she said with a nervous laugh and wondered at the pained look on Buffy’s face and the downcast eyes of Wesley, Cordelia, and Dawn. Angel kissed the top of Buffy head but otherwise gave nothing away. “But what about this Gorch one? You didn’t track him down?”  

“Nah, he wasn’t worth it,” Buffy said in a firm voice that belied the inner turmoil she felt over Angel’s death. “Besides, at the time I was too busy recovering from the slight concussion I had, and…other things seemed way more important than him. As for any other ones…sometimes they’re worth keeping alive, for information, others just aren’t worth the energy it’d take to hunt them down.”  

“It’s a call,” Wes said, smoothly interrupting Fred before she could go on about the files he knew she’d read. Drusilla and Darla, Spike, there was something Angel said when Wes returned to the lobby for lunch about the other vampire and the former watcher wondered what it was. Other than their history of animosity, of course.  

“Sometimes they’re useful, most times not,” he continued with a smile as he dug through the remains of the Lo Mein. “Still, if we killed every demon we ran across, Doyle wouldn’t be here.”  

“Or maybe he would,” Dawn quipped, “What with the resurrection bit and all.”  

Doyle laughed, toasting Dawn with his glass of iced-tea; he was developing a taste for the caffeinated beverage and that kind of worried him. What worried him more was the other demon’s mutterings about Higher Beings and Powers and whatnot. It all sounded vaguely familiar, but Doyle couldn’t place anything.  

“Hello?” A voice called from the lobby and Fred jumped up to see who it was. Buffy nudged Dawn to follow as the voice sounded like Willow’s. Dawn went to the door and motioned the Scooby Gang in. “We’re all in here.”  

Willow led the way, with Tara close behind and Xander bringing up the rear with…Giles.  

“Giles?” Buffy asked, immediately on her feet to give her watcher a hug. “What are you doing here?”  

“It’s a long story, Buffy, but it is good to see you,” Giles smiled as he hugged her back. Dawn impatiently awaited her turn and the moment Buffy released Giles, the younger Summers threw her arms around him, too.  

The general commotion and introductions lasted only moments before Tara fainted.  

Angel was across the room in a heartbeat, catching the blonde witch before she hit the ground and laying her across the recently vacated couch. In all the hubbub over Tara, no one immediately noticed Lorne passed out in his chair.  

“Think it’s connected?” Wesley asked his counterpart as the pair of them polished their glasses, unconsciously mirroring the other’s movements.  

Giles shrugged, “Probably, since when has anything that’s ever happened to us been coincidence?”  

“Tara?” Willow questioned, frantic, “Baby, wake up.” The redhead clutched at her ex-lover’s hand and gently stroked her face, whispering to her all along.  

Fred looked helpless at Lorne, meanwhile, and tried lightly slapping him once or twice with no results. Giles and Wes conferred in hushed tones as they watched the rest of the combined gangs stand helplessly around. With no visible injuries, no signs, whatsoever, of attack, and no way to discover what happened to the two, there was nothing for anyone to really do.  

“So, Willow,” Cordelia said from her position near Doyle as she watched the red-haired woman plead with her obvious lover to wake. “You’re gay?” At the other woman’s look, Cordelia shrugged, “How very PC of you.”  

Dawn sniggered but said nothing. She was fine with Willow and Tara; in fact, she wanted them back together. And while Cordelia was never Dawn’s favorite person, the brunette’s way with words and situations never failed to amuse her. Right now, with the added weirdness to the weirdness that was already happening here, it was needed.  

“Higher Beings!” Lorne shouted into the room, suddenly coming away and jerking upright. Dawn sniggered again when everyone immediately went on the defensive, expecting an attack.  

Looking at the greened-skinned demon skeptically, Giles asked, “What do you mean?”  

“Huh?” Lorne questioned, putting a hand to his head and rubbing immediately beneath his red horns.  

“You said higher beings,” Giles repeated. “What did you mean by that?” When Lorne continued to look lost, Giles turned to Buffy and Angel. He noted their close positions to the other, saw the way Angel hovered over Buffy as he often did in the days before the vampire left Sunnydale, and noted the almost liberated look on Buffy’s face. His poor girl hadn’t looked so free, so happy in too long.  

“That’s the reason I’m here,” Giles said and also noted the disappointed look on his slayer’s face. “Part, anyway,” he amended with a smile. “The Coven in Devon saw something about higher beings, about someone returning to the fold to right a great wrong. Or injustice, or possibly both,” Giles looked confused and admitted, “They were a little vague on that.”  

Buffy smirked at that, glad that they weren’t the only ones always one-step behind. Willow stood to listen, intrigued with what Giles said. Tara was still unconscious but Dawn sat next to her on the couch, holding her hand in place of the redhead.  

“Right then, so they said that it involved the slayer, I’m assuming it meant you.” Turning to Angel he questioned, “Faith’s still in jail, yes?” At the vampire’s affirmative nod, Giles shrugged. “It could have to do with her, but when I arrived at the house, Buffy, Willow and Tara informed me that a gentleman suddenly appeared in your living room. One who apparently died over two years ago while working with Angel?”  

Buffy nodded, gesturing to Doyle who stood with Cordelia at his side. Cordelia clutched his arm tightly, afraid to let go lest he do something monumentally stupid again, like jump into a bomb to save a bunch of people. And, okay, herself, but she’d just gotten him back…  

“Doyle,” Buffy introduced but let Angel tell Giles the rest – the short version at least.  

“He died a little over two years ago,” Angel said and the remembered pain in his voice came through loud and clear. “He diffused a bomb, created by the Scourge, and meant to destroy anyone with human blood in them for a several mile radius.”

Fascinated, Giles turned to the other man. “You were dead?” He didn’t seem as surprised as he should; being a watcher for so many years, plus living on the Hellmouth and dealing with Buffy’s many exploits, had tempered his shock level, drastically.  

“That’s what they tell me,” the Irishman admitted with a smile. “But I don’t remember it.”  

Tara began to stir and Willow immediately rushed to her side. With her former lover’s help, Tara sat up, smiling at the woman who handed her a glass of water. Sipping her drink, Tara took a minute to digest all she’d seen and felt when she entered the room. It was a myriad of emotions, things she hadn’t fully understood when she’d first seen Doyle, but that seemed to make perfect sense, as strange as that seemed, now.  

“Is he here?” She asked Willow, hoping her ex-lover would understand whom Tara meant. Willow did and nodded, moving to the side so Tara could see Doyle. Standing, handing the glass to Dawn, Tara moved a step or two forward.  

“I don’t know why I didn’t pick up on it before,” she admitted in a low voice directed at the man she’d only just met. “It’s so clear now. Maybe it’s the dynamics of the people here, or maybe it’s something else, but I know where you were.”  

Doyle looked shocked and, if one knew him well enough, scared. He didn’t remember where he’d been and frankly wasn’t sure he wanted to. Angel remembered and he was in hell. Buffy remembered and she was yanked out of heaven. Doyle didn’t remember and was sure, the more he thought of it, that he didn’t want to. Ignorance being bliss and all.  

“You do?” This was from Cordelia, and she sounded torn between curiosity and the fear she heard in Doyle’s voice. She moved closer to the man she never had a chance with, never knew if it truly would have worked, never knew if they were meant to be or if it was all just because he’d died so suddenly and heroically.  

“Yes,” Tara murmured, stretching out a hand to Doyle as if mesmerized. “Bright lights, colors and sounds, hope…you were a higher being, Doyle, you helped guide those on this plane towards their destinies. You helped guide Angel.”  

“I did?”  

“He did?” Angel asked, somehow gratified that his friend was there, helping, even if it was hard to believe the past two years were anything but horrifying in some areas.  

Tara nodded, again; completely oblivious to the fact that she had everyone’s undivided attention. “You were kicked out, I think, that’s why you don’t remember. You did something…I don’t know what, and they returned you to earth.”  

“Ah,” Doyle said, trying to figure out what else to say to that. “Well then.”  

“It was you,” Lorne spoke up, “Who broke the spell?” They’d already figured as much, but it was nice to have confirmation. Besides, with this new woman telling Doyle things he, Lorne, should have been able to read, he wanted to justify himself, somehow.  

Doyle shrugged, still in the dark about things the witch before him seemed to know, but Tara looked at the demon curiously. “Spell?”  

“Oh, right, that one,” Lorne said and tittered a little, suddenly uncomfortable. Angel and Cordelia were glaring at him, and if looks could kill, the one he was receiving from Buffy would put him a good ten feet under. Still, what else was one to say? “The one where Angel and Cordelia thought they were in love.”  

The Sunnydale gang, or those who hadn’t been there for rounds one and two of the story, stared at the horned demon in shock. Finally, Xander started to laugh. He laughed so hard it was a wonder he didn’t pop something.  

Sputtering, he said, “Angel and Cordelia in love? Oh, ha, that’s great. The vampire and the cheerleader, in love, oh, ha,” he was overcome by laughter and couldn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t matter, everyone understood, if no one else shared in his obvious and hysterical mirth.  

Angel glared at Xander, wondering why he hadn’t killed the boy before, while Cordelia shot daggers at him and hoped he’d combust on the spot from laughing too hard. She dated this lunatic? Buffy tried to quell the flare of jealously she knew was unwarranted, but grasped Angel’s hand tighter, as if conveying her possession on his total being. Dawn just covered her eyes, moaning something about being blind from the trauma of the situation.  

Giles looked at Wesley. “I need a drink.”  
**********  
Lilah watched the proceedings inside the hotel through high-powered binoculars and a listening device she had absolutely no idea how to really work. But it was set to catch all the voices from down and across the street, through the building and several rooms in. nifty gadget.  

So this was Doyle, she thought. Interesting. Dismissing him almost immediately, she tried to look at Angel through the binoculars, but there was a stupid pillar in her way. Of all the rotten luck. It was obvious, however, that their spell was broken, as Cordelia was currently on the opposite couch with this Doyle, wrapped around him as if old lovers. Typical.  

Ticking off the rest of the group inside, Lilah admitted she was at a loss on several of them. Oh, she’d kept tabs over the years on the slayer, but frankly, Buffy Summers wasn’t of much interest to the firm. That may, Lilah admitted, have been a slight miscalculation on their part.  

Especially since it looked like she and Angel were back together. Well, that Moment of Perfect Happiness could still be got, the lawyer thought, Buffy, Cordelia, she didn’t care who could give the vampire that moment, she just wanted it. Even if it looked as if this slayer truly was the only one to possess that capability.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
Tara insisted that a simple memory retrieval spell would work, not looking at Willow as she said that, and that she needed a few ingredients to do it. Lorne, after hearing about the spell, agreed that it was their best bet.                        

Gunn, Fred, and Dawn, went with her to the local magick shop, and Willow promised to stay behind. She was still in magicks withdraw and decided, with the enthusiastic support of her friends, that she didn’t need to added temptation of the shopping trip. Xander said nothing, but he wanted to stay if for no other reason than he wanted to see, first hand, Buffy kick Angel’s ass for even thinking he was in love with Cordelia.  

He was sorely disappointed when Buffy revealed she already knew and she and Angel already discussed it.  

Giles wandered off with Wesley, to look over their notes from the past months, reminisce about England, and ignore the rest of the gang still in the family room. They locked themselves in Wes’ office with a pot of tea, a tray of biscuits, and a bottle of scotch and didn’t plan on venturing out again until Tara returned and they could figure out just what happened to Doyle.  

Buffy sat next to Angel, across from Cordelia and Doyle, with Xander still chuckling quietly in a nearby chair. Lorne went to call come contacts about finding one of the key – and rare – ingredients for Tara’s spell, and disappeared around the time the alcohol did.  

“So let me get this straight,” Xander smirked, “There was this spell on you two, put there by some evil law firm in the hopes that you’d lose your soul and become Angelus again and rule the world for them?” At Angel’s reluctant nod, Xander sniggered, “Did they really think that Angelus would play well with them? I mean, come on! The guy was around for months and the only way Buffy stopped you was by sending you to hell. You tried to destroy the world! How’s that playing well with others?”  

“It wasn’t him, Xander,” Buffy said but didn’t expect her friend to really listen to her. He hadn’t before, no matter how many times she’d tried to explain the differences between Angel and Angelus, why should this time be different?  

“Right, right,” Xander waved her comment away, as he had before on numerous occasions. “But what cracks me up the most, is that they spelled you to fall in love with…Cordelia?” Another bark of laughter, then, “Why?”  

“And why not?” Cordelia asked, insulted. Just because she was overly traumatized with ‘being in love’ with Angel, and wondered if Tara could do a small memory spell on her to rid the former cheerleader of that horrible time, didn’t mean anything. Xander acted as if she were the most repulsive thing in the room, the very last woman they could get Angel to fall in love with.  

“Uh, what?” Xander asked, “You mean you are in love with Angel?”  

“Ew, no!” Cordelia snapped, “That’s not my point. My question was, why shouldn’t he have fallen in love with me, I’m not unattractive, we’re the best of friends, and we work closely together. Other than the fact that I see him as my brother, with absolutely NO romantic feelings whatsoever, means nothing to the hypothetical question.”  

Doyle hid his smile as Angel quietly smirked next to Buffy. He could tell his beloved wanted to rip Cordelia’s throat out simply for being under the spell to have them fall in love, but she, too, smiled at Xander’s predicament.  

“Ah, er, urm…” Xander trailed off and looked to Buffy for help, but she was still pissed about the Angel/Angelus comparison and wasn’t about to help him out. Doyle simply enjoyed the interaction, he’d seen his princess with any of her friends, and Angel smirked at the boy, silently cheering Cordelia on.  

When it was obvious Xander had no answers for her, Cordelia stood in a huff, and stormed to the lobby ostensibly “To do some filing.” Angel, not wanting to be anywhere near the boy who loved to be a pain in his ass since the first time they met, stood, tugging Buffy’s hand and lead her out of the room. There were still things to discuss, and…acquaintances to renew. Plus Angel wanted to ask her to stay in LA. He couldn’t move back to Sunnydale, no matter how much he longed to, it wasn’t where he belonged, not anymore. He was needed in Los Angeles, but more importantly, he needed Buffy with him.  

Now, how to convince her of that?  

“So, you and Delia were an item, eh?” Doyle asked when it became clear they were the only two left in the room.  

“Yeah, back in the day.”

“And were your conversations always like this?”  

Xander snorted, “No, usually they were much more vicious. Cordelia has a nasty tongue on her, and I was usually on the receiving end.” Settling more into a more comfortable position, Xander asked, “How is it you never realized that? She’s not subtle, and I doubt that she’d hide her true feelings from anyone.”  

Doyle shrugged, slightly annoyed with Xander’s attitude towards the woman he loved, but wanted to know what was behind that attitude. “Oh, I know she’s a sharp wit and a stinging tongue, but she’s got a lot underneath that. She’s kind and generous, too.”  

Xander refrained from laughing, though it was a close thing. “Kind, okay, I’ve seen. Generous? Please, fill me in on this.”  

Doyle smiled and prepared to tell his love’s ex exactly how Cordelia changed from the high school bitch to someone who helped. And if he needed to embellish a tad, Doyle thought, then Xander would never be the wiser.  

The key was to hide this little swap from Cordelia herself.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
Buffy sat stiffly on Angel’s bed, remembering how, just hours ago, she’d been perfectly comfortable in that bed, wrapped securely in his Angel arms, and Angel scent.  

No thoughts of horrifying love spells were in their cocoon, no friends who never understood their relationship anyway, no sister who needed more attention than ever and from Buffy who didn’t have that in her any longer, no Spike, no Darla, no curse. Just Buffy and Angel, the way it was meant to be.  

Cordelia’s screeching accusations, over hair gel of all things, woke them from that peaceful slumber, and now Buffy didn’t know how to act around Angel. Granted, she’d never understood how Angel managed his hair without a mirror, but then again, when he Darla turned him that luxury wasn’t commonplace anyway. Still, he did have a tendency to use copious amounts of hair care products, but to wake them from the first undisturbed rest Buffy had in months? Cordelia needed to work on her timing.  

Which brought the slayer back full circle. She was sitting on Angel’s bed, awkward as she waited his return. He’d left her in the bedroom and was currently rummaging through a trunk in the far side of the room. Should she stand? Go over to him and touch him? Leave as fast as she could, because historically speaking, things between the two never really worked without profuse angst and pain?  

Strip naked and lounge on his bed as a surprise for his return?  

That last held the most appeal, but it brought Buffy back to the Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Ever Do Again rule. She and Angel couldn’t make love because stupid vengeful gypsies decided that having the threat of Angelus hang over everyone’s head was a good idea. The least they could have done was warn Angel it was a possibility. But no, nothing was mentioned…and Buffy was getting off track.  

Her hands alternated between clutching the sheets in her balled fists, and twitching on her lap. Her imagination ran wild in the few moments Angel was gone, and Buffy wasn’t sure which was worse. Not knowing what he was looking for, or wondering if he was simply looking for a way to let her down easy. No, that didn’t make sense, and Buffy was fully aware of that.  

They hadn’t spent the past few hours talking things out, things that should never have been left to fester as long as they had, things that concerned not only both of them, but them as individuals, too. If Angel planned to reject her in his life, they wouldn’t have bothered with all that, right? Of course, right. It didn’t stop the Low-Esteem Buffy from taking control, the one that reared her ugly head whenever matters of Angel were involved.  

Suddenly Angel was back in the bedroom and holding something clasped tightly in his hands. He was giving her gifts? That certainly didn’t signify the end of their budding make-up, did it. Clearing her throat, and releasing the death grip she had on the sheets, Buffy waited as he settled beside her, looking as nervous as she felt.  

“I ah…I know that things are far from settled,” Angel began, looking straight at her, trying to will her to understand everything he was going to say and believe it all. “I know that we still have things to discuss and that so much time has passed that our relationship will never, can never, go back to the way it was. Then there’s the curse and Angelus…and all that entails.”  

He wasn’t explaining himself well at all, but Angel pushed ahead nonetheless. Without the admission that Angelus wanted Buffy as much as he, Angel, did. No need to burden her with that, too. “I know that you have responsibilities in Sunnydale, but well, but there are others who can do that. Faith’s in jail, true, but there’s…”  

Oh, boy, he was never this inarticulate before! “What I’m trying to say, Buffy, is that I’d like you to stay here, in LA, with me. I still can’t make love to you, the only way you’ll ever be able to have children is with…” clenching his teeth, Angel spat, “With another man,” then, softer, “But I love you.”  

His eyes glazed in panic when he heard the hitch in Buffy’s breathing. But then he saw the smile and relaxed. “You love me, still?” At his nod, Buffy smiled, a brilliant smile that took Angel’s non-breath away. “I love you, too.”  

“Good,” Angel whispered, clearing the emotion from his throat, “I’m so very glad to hear that. Makes what I have to say next, easier. I want you to stay here; I want us to be together, as much as we can. Too much has happened and I don’t want any more time to pass without you near me,”  

Slowly opening his hand, Angel showed Buffy what lay in his palm. It was her claddagh ring. The tears Buffy tried to hold in spilled over at the sight and all she could do was murmur, “Angel…”  

“I found it in my things when I left Sunnydale, after…I don’t know where it came from, at first I thought you put it there as a sign that you no longer wanted me. But then I remembered Willow saying something about my ring when we were in Sunnydale for, for…for your funeral.” He held his own hand up, showing Buffy the claddagh on his left hand. “She said that you had one just like it, but she hadn’t seen it in ages. Not since you returned from wherever you’d gone that summer.”  

“I left it in the mansion,” Buffy admitted as her eyes caressed the ring, “It was only after you returned that I looked for it again, I thought it lost.”  

“Not anymore.” Angel leaned down to kiss her, a soft touch of his lips. “Wear it again?” He asked even as he slipped the ring on her finger, closing her fingers around the symbol of his love.  

Buffy smiled as another tear fell, leaning up to kiss Angel again, in silent agreement.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
The shopping trip a success, Lorne’s source promising delivery by six that evening, everyone re-gathered in the lobby as Tara explained the spell she planned on using.  

“It’s fairly simple,” Tara said to Doyle as everyone else listened. “It simply unblocks your memories, ones that are being purposely blocked, not ones you just can’t remember. The effects only last for a few hours, so there’s no real danger of damage.”  

Doyle nodded, clearly uncomfortable though he put on a good show. “No worries, right?”  

There were so many things he was afraid of going wrong that the Irishman couldn’t even think of where to begin. He didn’t want this, but it looked as if it were the only way to unlock any memories he had from the years he’d been dead. Why anyone wanted to know about that time was beyond him, but maybe he’d remember helping Angel, what Cordelia’d been up to the past years – Doyle knew himself well enough to know that he’d spy on his friends.  

“There are a few,” Tara admitted, “But as long as you don’t step outside the protective circle, then it should all be good. As long as the memory spell is active and you’re within the circle, nothing should go wrong. We’ll even set up a timer so you can see how much time has passed, okay?”  

Doyle nodded but said nothing further. “Good,” Tara smiled reassuringly at him, “Then we’ll begin setting this up, it should take about an hour, plus we’ll have to wait for Lorne’s friend to bring the memory crystal.”  

Doyle nodded again and silently took Cordelia’s hand, leading her back upstairs. He may have to participate in the spell, but that didn’t mean he had to stay and watch. He was sure that when the time came, Tara would call for him. Until then, he planned to spend that time with Cordelia, discovering all that changed with her in the past two years.  

Buffy gestured to Giles as Angel led the slayer into his office. Closing the door behind them, the couple prepared to tell the former watcher what they’d decided earlier.

Dawn, for her part, was bored.  

She didn’t want to go into the main portion of the lobby, that was where Wesley, Lorne and Tara were setting up the spell. Xander and Willow were in the family room, away from said spell so as not to tempt Willow further. Buffy and Angel were in the latter’s office with Giles, and Cordelia and Doyle were upstairs. Fred helped Lorne with the grinding of the herbs, and Gunn looked on, as bored as Dawn felt.  

Standing, the bald man began cleaning some of his weapons, halfheartedly listening to the conversation between Lorne and Tara, with Fred’s comments interspersed. Dawn wandered over to the man and picked up a sword  

“Hey, watch it,” Gunn said, snatching the sword from Dawn’s hands. “That’s an antique.”  

“Ottoman Empire, right?” Dawn asked as she peered at the sword from several feet away, already trying to figure out how she could reach it without Gunn grabbing it first.  

Surprised, Gunn nodded, “Yeah, fourteenth century. Angel had it, but I took it over. He has way too many ‘favorites,’” Gunn smirked, “He needed to learn to share.  

Dawn laughed, walking to the other side of Gunn. “Buffy’s the same way, she hoards all her weapons, keeping them in trunk after trunk, in closets, under furniture.” The young woman shrugged, “She keeps saying you can never be too prepared and that having a weapon within easy reach is never a bad thing.”  

Snatching the sword from under Gunn’s watchful eye, Dawn gave the beautiful weapon a few experimental swings through the air. Gunn grimaced, but allowed Dawn her fun. It wasn’t every day he got to share his weapons, after all, and she obviously knew how to handle the sleek sword. Must be from living with the slayer for so long.  

Just then, Fred wandered over to them, chattering away about how the brain worked and how this memory spell might affect Doyle’s brain patterns. Dawn made some complicated hand moves with the Ottoman sword and listened to Fred babble for several long minutes.  

“I wonder if it’s his real body,” Fred asked as she watched Gunn polish a blade. “I mean the first one was burnt, right? Then was the body reanimated like a vampire’s or was it preserved, and what preserving agent did they use? If it’s the same body from before Doyle jumped, then will the memories from his time as a higher being be there, or only the ones that were there pre-death?”  

Fred paused to take a breath and Dawn said, returning Gunn’s sword to the pile of yet-to-be-cleaned. “Is this incessant need to talk all the time a nervous habit? You really should relax,” Dawn added as she began walking over to where Tara stood, looking at the circle. “Babbling is a sure way to let the demons know where you are.”  

Gunn snickered, but said nothing. He agreed with Dawn, though he’d never tell Fred that. Fred, for her part, looked after the girl confused. “I don’t talk that much, do I?”
 ~~~~~~~~~~  
“I see,” Giles said as he rubbed his glass lens. “Are you sure that’s wise, Buffy?”  

He was still in shock over Buffy’s confession about her affair with Spike, and Giles wasn’t sure her springing this move to LA was a good thing to follow. Then again, if it got her out of Sunnydale and away from Spike, there was absolutely no harm in it, as far as Giles was concerned.  

“Positive,” Buffy smiled. “I’ll be close enough if anything big happens, but frankly Giles, I need to leave. I need to be with Angel and I don’t want to waste another minute away from him.”

At that, Giles smiled. He couldn’t not; not with what he knew of Buffy’s feelings and relationship with the ensouled vampire. “It’s not my place, Buffy, to tell you what to do, but I think you should follow your heart. I know I haven’t always said that before, but I’d like to think I’ve changed over the past few years as well. I just worry,” Giles said, shifting his words from Buffy to Angel, “About the curse.”  

“I know,” Angel nodded, “And it’s a valid fear. But I think both Buffy and I are mature enough to deal with it, especially now that we know the consequences of what happens.”  

Slightly uncomfortable with discussing Buffy’s sex life – and soon to be lack thereof – Giles nodded. “I’d decided to stay in Sunnydale,” he admitted to a happy yelp from Buffy. Before he had a chance to finish, the slayer enveloped him in another hug. “Yes, I’m happy about it, too, Buffy,” he smiled as she released him with a sheepish look. “I thought that returning to England was best, but that’s no longer my home. Here is.”  

Angel smiled as he shook Giles’ hand. “We’ll set up a room for you, then. I assume you’ll be staying in Sunnydale?” At the other man’s nod, Angel finished, “Then you’ll always have a place to stay here.”  

Giles smiled at the couple before him and prayed that they could make this renewed relationship work. They deserved it even Giles could admit that.  
~~~~~~~~~~  
Lilah Morgan continued to watch the hotel from the sunlit rooftop across the street.  

The high-powered equipment told her several things, but only one of which was important. The slayer – the only being ever to release Angelus – was moving in. Oh, happy day, and if it wasn’t so undignified – and in public – and she wasn’t in heels atop a building, Lilah might just have danced a jig.  

What were the odds, she wondered, of Angel keeping his hands off the blonde? Slim-to-none, Lilah was sure. Yeah, they talked a good game, but given the test? They were both likely to fail and Lilah planned on being there to pick up the pieces. More specifically, she planned on using that eventual and inevitable slip-up to get what the Senior Partners, and consequently she, wanted. Angelus.  

She didn’t jump for joy, nor did Lilah shout to the heavens. But the lawyer did allow herself a small chuckle and a broad grin before descending to her waiting car. When the spell hit, that memory one, she wanted a closer seat. After all, any answers she had on the mysterious Doyle were welcomed. And might just be able to help her along with her advancement.  

Lilah was nothing if not ambitious.

All's Well That Magick Fixes

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